Our People
Management Team Kerryn Wildenburg – Operations Manager Kerryn joined KCC as the full-time Operations Manager in December 2017 and through her life and career experience brings to the role considerable expertise in areas including: hospitality, retail management (food & variety goods), and food preparation. She also has considerable experience in community and crisis support and has been an active community volunteer. Having grown up on the Mornington Peninsula, Kerryn moved to Kyneton in 2011 with her partner Simon Furness, where they have raised their two daughters and become valued members of the Kyneton community. Prior to her appointment in her current role with KCC, Kerryn’s first interaction with the organisation was as a volunteer with its soup kitchen program in 2014. Before moving to Kyneton, Kerryn worked as the Larder Chef at the Rosebud RSL restaurant and prior to this spent four years as the Assistant Manager with M&M Peables Gift and Variety in Rosebud, where she was responsible for the day-to-day running of the store, visual merchandising, bookkeeping, inventory management and product ordering, and staff training. During her time with M&M Peables, Kerryn was the Retail Customer Service Award Winner with the “NAB Business Excellence Awards Rosebud 2009”. Since moving to Kyneton Kerryn has worked with a number of local food orientated businesses including, Watts Fresh Grocers and Bakers Delight. She has subsequently gained qualifications in “Home and Community Care” (Certificate 3) and “Aged Care” (Certificate 3), through the Kyneton Community and Learning Centre, and completed placements at Bupa Aged Care Kyneton as a personal care worker and with Macedon Ranges Shire Council as a personal care and home care worker, looking after multiple clients with a broad variety of needs. As a result of her considerable life experience and her own personal challenges, Kerryn is able bring a tremendous level of care and compassion for those within the broader KCC community. Kerryn is an experienced mentor in the alcoholic rehabilitation 12 step program and also holds qualifications in Hospitality Operations (Certificate 4) and Business Administration (Certificate 3). 
Tamara Dalton – Operations Assistant
Tamara joined the KCC team in September 2017 as a volunteer wanting to “pay it forward” after having previously been a beneficiary of KCC’s services and in June 2018 was employed as the part-time Operations Assistant and relief Operations Manager at KCC. She is also Kitchen Hand & Second Cook (part-time) at PGL Campaspe Downs, a role she credits securing due to the valuable experience she gained as a volunteer at KCC. A highly-valued member of the KCC family, Tamara is one the organisation’s major success stories, having achieved significant personal growth since her first involvement with the organisation as a Foodbank client. Tamara brings to KCC significant life experience having endured a number of major health challenges over the past few years severely affecting her ability to earn an income. The most recent of these illnesses, a rare de-generative disease which severely affected the use of her wrist and writing hand, took three years to remedy and left her and her family “doing it tough”, like so many of the people she now proudly supports through her role at KCC. Tamara has lived in Kyneton since 1987 after her family relocated from the Mornington Peninsula. She undertook her schooling at St Mary’s Primary School and subsequently completed year 12 at Kyneton Secondary College. Always a self-starter, Tamara held a number of part-time jobs while still at school, including the role of the much-loved “Fizzy the Safeway Clown” – the highlight of her working career so far because of the joy it brought to so many people in the community. Tamara has a diverse range of work experience and life skills, having held roles including production assistant with Black Forest Saw Mill in Woodend, Assistant Manager of the Mobile Service Station in Kyneton, and Café Assistant at Bug-a-Lugs Indoor Play Centre, before becoming a full-time mother. She holds certified qualifications in “Hygiene Practices and Food Safety” and “Responsible Service of Alcohol” and undertook studies at Bendigo TAFE to be a Personal Trainer. Tamara is a proud single mother of three children, is fiercely independent and enjoys splitting her own firewood. Her personal interests include: the outdoors, painting, drawing, ancient history and most importantly, supporting those in need within our community. 
Simon Furness – Assistant Operations Manager (Volunteer)
Simon joined KCC as a volunteer in December 2017, and in this capacity acts as the Assistant Operations Manager on an as needed basis. As a result of his broad and considerable life experience, as well as his genuine desire to support those in need within our community, Simon is a valuable asset to the KCC team. He is an experienced drug and alcohol rehabilitation mentor and life coach, and was the founder and key facilitator of a number of drug and alcohol support groups within the Macedon Ranges region. Simon’s first interaction with KCC was as a volunteer with its soup kitchen program in 2014. Born in England to Australian parents, Simon grew up in Canada (Ontario) to the age of 12, before moving back to his family’s home-town of Melbourne. A talented junior sportsman, Simon played a number of sports including senior level ice hockey, with the highlight of his career being part of an informal Australian national team who played the visiting Canadian team in the early 1990’s. After a self-described “misspent youth”, Simon moved to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia at the age of 18 to be near his parents, who were already living in Borneo due to work commitments. In the five years Simon spent in Borneo he learned Bahasa Melayu (the national language of Malaysia) and became a qualified instructor with Outward Bound Sabah (part of the Outward Bound International network), where he was responsible for delivering 7, 14 and 21 day wilderness-based, experiential personal development programs for corporate executives and young adults. He also completed a Higher Diploma in Hotel Tourism Management through the University of Birmingham (UK) and worked as a Management Trainee at the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu and Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort, in Kota Kinabalu. During his time in Borneo, Simon learned to interact with people from all walks of life and levels of society – from billionaires to illegal immigrants living in shanti villages, and people from all parts of the world. After returning to Australia, Simon travelled extensively around the country and worked in a wide variety of industries including a stint as a Management Supervisor at the Desert Gardens Ayers Rock Resort in Alice Springs, before settling back in Victoria where he worked in large-scale construction as a concretor, truck driver and bobcat operator, until his forced retirement due to a serious spinal injury. Simon and his partner Kerryn Wildenburg and their two daughters moved to Kyneton in 2011. Simon is an active member of the local Kyneton community and an avid golfer and member of the Kyneton Golf Club Team of Volunteers
KCC only operates due to the significant involvement of its team of volunteers for whose support we are very grateful. Our volunteers come from all walks of life and personal circumstances and we are constantly amazed at the generosity of the people within our community. Some of the roles our volunteers assist with include:
Gallery of our wonderful volunteers
|
|
|
